Using HAL for X Server Config Properties?

[Philip Prindeville]

David Zeuthen wrote:

>Hi,
>
>On Mon, 2005-10-10 at 10:55 -0700, Johnson, Charles F wrote:
>  
>
>>Maybe I'm being dense, what is the end user benefit of moving the X
>>Server configuration information from the text file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf)
>>to where it is managed by some kind of configuration API as refered to
>>here.  Is this just engineering goodness in that it will make it easier
>>to support other operating systems, etc ??  Or is these seen as a
>>necessary infrastructure improvement needed before we can handle Hotplug
>>and some of these X11 devuce management issues ??  If there is a bigger
>>picture here, then I want to make sure I'm seeing it.
>>    
>>
>
>Ideally, as I see it the end-user should never ever have to edit
>configuration files to use his computer which to me includes changing
>the resolution, monitor and input configuration. Btw, if I was running
>the show, /etc would be empty on laptop installs :-)
>
>The implementation detail of whether the X server uses a configuration
>and is asked to reload it (so e.g. some program rewrites this file) or
>it provides a configuration interface over e.g. D-BUS is clearly to the
>end user pretty irrelevant. But if you consider the all the features you
>want from this interface, for example
>
> 1) Well-tested and secure protocol - should check for overflows in
>    a separate process. 
> 2) Ability to deny requests based on *who the user is* and *what
>    context the user is in* (e.g. DAC and MAC security models)
> 3) Some notion of interface versioning and adaptive fallbacks etc.
> 4) Rich and structured data-types for the API elements of the interface
> 5) Asynchronous notification when hardware is added/removed (e.g.
>    monitors, graphic cards, input devices)
> 6) Per-user configuration (e.g. Alice wants 1024x768 and only wants
>    to use an external mouse, cuz the touchpad on the laptop is annoying
>    her. Bob wants to use the full 1400x1050 resolution and the
>    touchpad)
> 7) etc etc etc
>
>it becomes pretty clear to me that the "rewrite /etc/X11/xorg.conf" is a
>pretty bad idea and offering a real API based on e.g. D-BUS is the way
>to go. But that is just my opinion.
>
>Cheers,
>David
>
>  
>

Getting the configuration right the first time would mean
not having to rewrite it later, hopefully (as opposed to just
changing modes and cycling through a preset list of modes).

The kudzu support for DDC is pretty feature poor.  It would
be nice if someone took the ddc library (which already has
most of the needed functionality) and just wrote a wrapper
around it to make it usable as a stand-alone program that
could be run before the X server ever gets run... I.e. during
an initial install when hardware gets detected.

The generated output could then be parsed and reformatted
into a xorg.conf file that would simply (knock on wood) work.

-Philip